Radioactive iodine, which is one of the volatile radionuclides generated when spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed in a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, is contained in an off-gas. In general, for example, the off-gas is cleaned with an alkali or radioactive iodine is adsorbed by supplying the off-gas through a filter filled with an iodine adsorbent, thereby preventing damage to the environment. This method of adsorbing radioactive iodine with an iodine adsorbent has been widely employed. Such an iodine adsorbent or the like that adsorbs and collects radioactive iodine is subjected to a solidification treatment as radioactive iodine-containing waste and is then prepared for final disposal.
Water in a system containing radionuclides in nuclear power plants contains cation species that have a high radioactive intensity and that contain Co-60 (cobalt 60), Cs-137 (cesium 137), Sr-90 (strontium 90), Fe (iron), Ni (nickel), and the like; and anion species that have a low radioactive intensity and that contain C-14 (carbon 14), Cl-36 (chlorine 36), Se-79 (selenium 79), Tc-99 (technetium 99), and I-129 (iodine 129) (in the form of H14CO3−, 14CO22−, H79SeO3−, 79SeO42−, and 99TcO4−). In particular, since no appropriate mineral adsorbent is present for these radioactive anions, an ion-exchange resin is used as an adsorbent. When such an ion-exchange resin is disposed of, it is necessary to reduce the volume thereof. After a volume reduction process, the ion-exchange resin is disposed of in the form of a cement solidified article, an asphalt solidified article, or the like.
For the solidification of radioactive waste, various methods such as cement solidification (Patent Document 1), plastic solidification, asphalt solidification, metal solidification (Patent Documents 2 and 3), glass solidification (Patent Documents 4 and 5), and apatite solidification (Patent Document 6) have been proposed. Cement solidification, plastic solidification, and asphalt solidification are advantageous in that the treatment process is simple and the amount of secondary waste generated is small because the adsorbent can be included at a low temperature without further treatment. However, the materials employed such as cement, plastics, asphalt, and metals are generally degraded within several tens to several hundreds of years. Furthermore, since iodine is unevenly included, iodine may leach outside after the degradation of the material. On the other hand, glass is a dense material. Furthermore, when iodine is contained in glass in the form of a solid solution, the leaching of iodine can be suppressed to the extent that iodine is dissolved in the glass. Apatite material is a component of bones, and, for example, it has been demonstrated through the observation of dinosaur fossils that the shape of apatite can be stably maintained for several millions of years. Therefore, it is believed that apatite is suitable as a fixing agent for stable long-term preservation.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-227895    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-62598    Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-249792    Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-171096    Patent Document 5: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-116894    Patent Document 6: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-91694